Date ArchivesJuly 2012

With the London Olympics starting on Friday I suppose it was only a matter of time before we started seeing new pieces from Banksy popping up. The first is a javelin thrower who’s a bit better armed than usual, and the second a pole vaulter trying to make his escape. Every time I see his work I’m still amazed at how technically talented he is, despite what you think of his message. His proportions and compositions are always spot on. I’m fairly certain these were uploaded only this morning, hopefully we’ll he’ll post some more pieces as the Olympics continue.

July 23, 2012Comments Off on Theme Week: The Olympics and Sports readOlympics, Sports

This week the TFIB editorial staff decided to try out another theme week, this time centered around the Olympics and sporting in general. With the start of the 2012 London Olympics this Friday we thought it would be fun to dabble into the world of sports, something we don’t generally talk about here on the site. That said, we’ll stil be concentrating on the art, design, architecture, music and culture of sports – the things we’re good at. If you have any good ideas for post ideas hit me up on Twitter or on our Facebook page.

July 20, 2012Comments Off on ‘Mobile’ by Caleb Wood, a minimal, Miyazaki-esque video readVideo

Caleb Wood is a Grand Rapids based animator who’s inventive video Mobile caught my eye. There’s a vibe to it which reminds me a Hayao Miyazaki film, like the spirits that float around his films. caleb says he created the elements in Photoshop and composited everything in about a week… I want to make cool things like this in one week.

Tom Colbie reimagines reality with his Shots from a Parallel Dimension. His astronauts are cast in a uniform color tone. His frames are granulated; its noise separating the viewer from the subject. They are familiar, some standing on the shoulders of great works of the past (ie. da Vinci’s The Lady with an Ermine and David’s The Death of Marat), while others appear appear to come straight from a lucid dream.

July 20, 2012Comments Off on An old Coke factory becomes a hub of municipal services readArchitecture

These are images of OostCampus by Carlos Arroyo Architect. The project is the city hall and municipal services center for the town of Oostkamp, Belgium. Formerly, the building was some kind of bottling facility for Coca-cola, but Arroyo won a competition four years ago to imagine a different future for the site. He elected to keep the exiting building, but modify it quite extensively, filling the interior with fiber and gypsum shells. These shells are what look like giant bubbles on the inside, turning the ceiling into a choppy plane.

The winning project, by the Madrid studio lead by Carlos Arroyo, opted for a radical re-use of the large industrial existing building, including foundations, floors, supporting structures, outer skin, insulation, waterproofing, and all recoverable services and equipment: power station, heating plant, water pipes, fire hoses, sewerage, and even parking area, fencing and access.

The reuse of the existing is a basic criterion of sustainability. The “gray energy” (energy used for the production of something) is often discarded or simply ignored. If we demolish an existing structure and build again, we will use more energy and resources than the most efficient of buildings can of save in its life span.

You can also watch a video about the design features of the project here.

July 20, 2012Comments Off on Michael Miller gives his fantastic vision of the future readDesign, Illustration

My obsession with the future is pretty insatiable at this point. I’m constantly trying to dig up new, crazy ideas or amazing ways of illustrating new ideas. I’m not sure how I stumbled across the work of Michael Miller, but I’m so excited I did. I’m not sure how you’d describe Michael’s work. I know he creates his pieces in Photoshop, but there’s a style there that’s hard to put my finger on. It all feels so very fluid and full of motion, even the more static cityscape image.

July 19, 2012Comments Off on Let the Terror Begin – A Preview of the Fantasia International Film Festival readDesign

Gore (and lots of it) is about to hit the streets of Montreal for the 16th annual Fantasia International Film Festival. Like most major festivals there is a unique hype that surrounds the event. The Fantasia fest usually summons the bizarre and untamed, as well as those who enjoy a fare bit of terror induced edge-of-your-seat entertainment. This year the Fantasia Film Festival runs from July 19th to August 9th, and will screen over 160 films within the genres of Sci-fi, Horror, Action, Crime, Experimental, Retro, Historical, Musical, Romance, War and Western.

After painfully gleaning the program in an effort to pack in as much sci-fi, blood, guts and thrill into a limited amount of time (there are only 24 hours in the day!), the highlights of my viewing frenzy will start with director, co-writer and producer Shunichiro Miki’s film The Warped Forest. Official Selection at the Hawaii International Film fest and the Freak Me Out Section of the Sydney Film fest, The Warped Forest is an experimental comedy from Miki who very well might be a Japanese cross between Harmony Korine and Michel Gondry.

I am really looking forward to director Christoffer Boe’s Beast. Winner of the Jury Prize at the Gerardmer Fantastic Film Festival and Official Selection at SXSW, the Danish filmmaker’s fifth feature film is an illusive love drama gone incredibly wrong. In the same spirit of over excitement, Jan Kwiecinski, Alexey Fedorchenko and none other than the ubër peculiar Harmony Korine, have collaborated on screen to bring us The Fourth Dimension, staring Val Kilmer. Given that I am a huge fan of Korine, I am certain that The Fourth Dimension will definitely be explored more significantly on TFIB.

Chained, is the new film by Jennifer Lynch which has already been causing controversy with the MPAA who has bestowed upon it an NC-17 rating due to extreme violence. The rating, as well as the quality of the cast (staring Vincent D’Onofrio and Julia Ormond) might work in Lynch’s favour to finally lift the cinematic hex which she has been operating under for years, with the exception of her 2008 film Surveillance. Lynch is also the subject of Penny Vozniak’s documentary Despite the Gods, also screening at Fantasia. Vozniak’s film captures the treacherous and exhausting experience of Lynch’s goal to direct a horror fantasy film in… Bollywood?

Other films which I will not be missing include Killer Joe; Excision; Possession; The Human Race; School Girl Apocalypse; Easton’s Article; Replicas; Carre Blanc; Love in the Buff; Toy Master; Turn Me On; Sleep Tight; Wrong; The Haunting of Julia; Sons of Norway; The Victim; We Are Legion; Alter Ego’s; The Day Mishima Chose His Own Fate; Bones Brigade; The Mechanical Bride; A Night of Nightmares; In Bread

July 19, 2012Comments Off on Video for ‘Smells Like Content’ by The Books readMusic Video

A few years ago I had the pleasure of seeing The Books play in a small venue here in Hollywood, the space allowing about 150 people to watch the show. Sadly The Books split up early this year, so it makes me happy that I had the chance to see them live. That said, it’s still possible to glean some of the awesomness that they had while playing live through their music videos, like this one for Smells Like Content.

When they’d play live it would be just the two of them sitting there, they weren’t rock stars by any means, they made aleatoric music. So they created these beautiful video pieces to accompany them while they played, effectively setting the mood each time. The video for Smells Like Content is a simple concept, spelling out each of the words by syllable and often phonetically. This combined with the rapid pace of Nick Zammuto’s lyrics it creates an intense stream of letters that is a joy to watch. One of my favorite parts is when you see the lyrics, “Meanwhile, statues are bleeding green.” I don’t want to ruin it, but you’ll see what I mean when you see it, so keep an eye out.